Garden of Motherless Children: Stories

Garden of Motherless Children is a short story cycle set on the largely rural and small-town Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Come-here's and from-here's intermingle in surprising ways, sometimes finding unexpected fulfillment, but just as often slipping through each other's grasp right when hope reaches its zenith.

In "May Day," a middle-age divorceé who works at a small college falls inappropriately in love with a graduating senior. Will the biggest obstacle prove to be her daughter or his mother?

In "Can You Show Me the Way?", an influencer couple who are gaining renown on the Internet for their artistic renovation of an old church are suddenly confronted with the vast creative differences they've been papering over.

And in the title story, "Garden of Motherless Children," a well-meaning pastor struggles with a dawning sense of his own ineffectuality as he tries to salvage the life of a homeless veteran of the forever wars.

Twelve more stories round out the cycle in imaginative and surprising ways. For example: A grieving father and War of 1812 reenactor is confronted with a somewhat disorienting chance to reenact his own life. A would-be novelist is given the luxury of unlimited time to write by an enigmatic woman who turns him into a kept man. And an inconstant husband in a marriage he is suddenly eager to preserve finds the perfect piece of jewelry for his wife at a local auction. But can he afford it?

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Secant Publishing LLC
Published: 10/13/2026
ISBN: 9798996201907
Pages: 240
Weight: 0.72lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.55d